News

Snow blankets Middlesex

Enjoying a day of sleigh riding on Red Hill near Urbanna are, from front to back, Sienna Rowe, Gavin Rowe, Blake Berry and Taylor Berry. (Photo by Ray Rose)

by Tom Chillemi

Local activity was frozen for several days as the area sheltered in place after last week’s snowstorm. Few people ventured out to battle the snow and bitter cold that gripped the area.

In the first 7 days of 2018, the temperature was above freezing for only about three hours—on the afternoon of Wednesday, January 3, the temperature crested to 32.9 degrees.

On Monday, January 1, a daily-low temperature countdown began at 10 degrees and went down from there. As the sun set on January 3, the mercury dropped, then fell some more. By Friday, January 5, temperatures bottomed out in the single digits . . . the weekend was worse. Saturday, January 6, the low was 5 degrees. Jonsey Payne of Urbanna said his weather station recorded −3 degrees on Sunday, January 7. That matches the temperature at Richmond International Airport, which also recorded 3 degrees below zero, the coldest since January 21, 1985 when it was −6.

Average temperature between December 29 and January 5 was 25 degrees. It wasn’t until around noon on January 8 that temperatures rose above freezing.

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